


Sweater Weather

by Elinie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Autumn, Campfires, Captain Swan AU Week, Cold Weather, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 13:25:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15774993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elinie/pseuds/Elinie
Summary: Campfire, funfair, small town aesthetics and two people by the open fire.





	Sweater Weather

Autumn comes early this year. The weather turns cold, the trees get amber and the whole air itself gets crispy with each passing night. Emma doesn't mind it. She is always busy with her candle shop, implying new ideas to the already existing recipes and earning scolded looks from her best friend Ruby. Ruby is a magnificent red-haired girl who'd better be working as a labeled fashion photographer in some snobbish New York magazine than making wax candles here, but it's Ruby anyway. So Emma rolls her eyes at her best friend's sarcastic remark about Emma's boring life of a bachelorette and returns back to her aroma candles. 

Swan likes her work. More than anything in this small and empty town. She likes to come to her shop, to swept the endless amounts of dust, to fix the things, to stare at the window and, of course, to lit candles. They welcome light in the most dead of the darkness and they give hope even if there is none. That makes Emma love her simple job even more - to be the unnoticeable savior of all in need. Ruby scolds that Emma has Messiah complex but Emma lets her be. For all her life she has always been the one left alone so she likes helping people and caring about them. Even when she keeps silent and leaves the sarcastic remarks unanswered. 

Emma frowns her brow when Ruby rushes through the open door chattering about the earlier announced Funfair. Emma is busy working on a new aroma composition she bought last week so she has no time for Ruby's endless enthusiasm. 

"Emms, you gotta listen to me, girl" - Ruby shouts taking the wax candle away from her friend's hand. 

"What? What do you want, you, annoying creature?" - Emma rolls her eyes once again and frowns at the light shoulder punch she immediately receives. 

"What do I want? Hmmm, let me guess... I want little emmas and who-ever-this-mister-right-would-be, I want to become Auntie Ruby finally!"

"Ruby! Don't even start this again, please" - Emma pleads trying to make her way out from the counter, but Ruby is quicker so she grabs her by the hand. 

"Emms, you listen to me! The one you are looking for maybe just might not exist, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try. The funfair is coming. Funfair!" - Ruby waves her open palm right in front of Emma's eyes and shouts the words into her ear, so Swan has to agree. Trying wouldn't kill anyway. 

So the day X comes and Emma is as indifferent as always. Ruby is chased away by one of her countless one-night-stands and Swan is left alone in the middle of the town fest. All booths are busy with buyers and screaming kids, the air is filled with street food odors and Emma just wanders aimlessly through the noisy Fair. She curses herself for obeying another stupid advice of Ruby but it's too early to get back to the even emptier shop, so she keeps walking in hope of finding a good cup of coffee and a pumpkin pie. 

She likes autumn, even more than she likes her work. The weather is chilly, it's no higher than fifty-nine degrees, so she hides her hands into the sleeves of her knitted yellow poncho and breathes in happily. Finally, the summer is over and the times of rainy nights, amber glowed leaves and cinnamon cookies awaiting ahead. For the short moment, Emma feels happy. It's not like Swan ever has time for these things from her bucket-list but even thinking of a sweater weather makes her loneliness more bearable. So she lets herself wander through the Fair, smell the food and think about some nonchalance. 

Emma's feet take her out of the Fair and right to the field now completely harvested. The grass is still green and a bit crispy under her leather boots, and mist is dawning upon the lightly wet soil. The wind is blowing, night birds and bats are ready for the hunting but Emma pays no attention to the life around her. Both at the Fair and in the open field she feels completely alone. She got used to living on her own. Yes, she has Ruby, some forgotten exes, she has her shop and her regular customers but apart from them, she is a loner. The loner longing for a candle to burn the darkness of her life. 

Emma doesn't know where she's going but she does know that this is far better than drinking her loneliness away in some dusty bar like Ruby always does. So, Emma rubs her hands hoping to chase the cold away and keeps tracking her path down the harvested field. By the very edge of the grass, she spots the light gently burning through the grayish October twilight and a male figure sitting not far from the source of warmth. Swan shrugs and decides that it would do no harm if she comes closer and asks for a little warmth. 

"Hey... Might if I sit here?"

"Like open fire, huh?" - the man answers nodding to the burning branches. 

Emma sits down with her legs crossed and looks at the stranger. He is tall and black-haired, with an accurate beard and those devilishly blue eyes that give her shivers. And he's alone just like her. And he's no stranger. He is a tattoo-shop owner right opposite of her own little store. And he's the cause of endless Ruby's teasing and Emma's snapping. And if only he has known... But she decides to leave all as it is. 

"Yeah..." - Emma hesitates before speaking - "I like fire. I'm a candlemaker, you know, so I have to like it"

"Many people think fire is a danger but I like it too. It gives melancholic thoughts and just soothes everything"

"I guess you love working with danger, you are a tattoo-master...."

"No, lass, blood doesn't attract me. I... I just like giving people some symbols to make them hope again. You left the Fair and came here so you are not so different from me, Miss Candlemaker" - he gives a lopsided grin and looks slightly at her side. - "How long have we been working opposite each other? Two years, huh?"

"Eighteen months" - Emma shrugs and just stares back to the fire. It cracks and licks branches like some alien animal and Emma is envious of its inner power and hidden warmth. 

"Keep wasting our times, are we, less?" - he laughs bitterly.

"I remember your offer to celebrate the last Halloween together" - Emma suddenly says, making him quiver. He turns his head to look at her, then waves his gloved hand absentmindedly, - "You don't know this but since we are both here on this crisp autumn night, maybe it's time for campfire stories? I didn't come to your shop that Halloween Eve not because I had suddenly found some night-stand or got scared by a stunning less like you. I got into a car accident. Before coming to this town I lived in Boston, had a nice small flat, a fat cat, and a big dream. I was a baseball player and I was going to become a couch here, in Storybrook. My only relative, Liam, made me move here and start a new life free from old bitter events and broken dreams, so I obeyed. I opened my shop, bought a house not far from the town lighthouse, and started admiring you through my shop windows".

Emma gives out a small laugh but something in his tone makes her keep the silence. 

"So that destined evening when I asked you for a Halloween party I got into the accident and had my hand damaged," - with these words he waves his gloved fingers and continues - "My dream of becoming a baseball coach died that rainy night for who would agree to be trained by a disabled man? So I kept my shop open and buried myself into work..." 

For a couple of viscous minutes, Emma just stares at the fire and his words are echoing inside her head. 

"Killian, I..."

"Don't, less. I appreciate that you are sorry and I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable but maybe, just maybe we could give that Halloween night a better try?"

Emma grabs his gloved fingers. 

"Killian, listen, you are no child yourself and probably you had better advisers than some candlemaker like me, but we know each other for the eighteen months even though we think we don't. I brought you chicken broth in wintertime and you fixed my broken lock for thousand times. I held Ruby's hand while you were drawing a broken heart-tattoo on her wrist. You made your brother meet her and we made bets on how long their relations would last. I saw you working late nights and you asked my advice on some sketches. And, you know, just to play a snob here, I would like you to be my coach though I am no sports fan at all, but, be sure, you would get the best cheerleader if I had to perform! So, why don't you just give it a try? Kids would love your personality and your dirty jokes and your tattoos... You've got so much inside to give, you couldn't even imagine"

"Well, everybody’s got something that they’re searching for?"

"Definitely"

"I saw you in a grocery store this morning and now you are here sitting right next to me and giving me advice on how to live... Funny. I've been afraid just to ask you out, afraid that you'd reject a disabled like me..."

"Shut up, Jones, I saw what you were doing with those hands of yours"

"Oh, and I could show you so much more" - Killian plays with his brows and Emma just rolls her eyes. 

"What's your symbol for me?"

"A buttercup" - he answers simply, - "So, shall I bring you a pumpkin spiced latte tomorrow since you keep appearing on my way, and ask you out in the evening?"

Emma punches his ribs and smiles. 

"Indeed. And let's drink it for the sake of sweater weather". 

The fire slowly dies down and dissolves in a chilly autumn night but the two of them are warm with the light of new hope and new tomorrow. 

End.

**Author's Note:**

> The buttercup’s primary meaning is lightness and joy.


End file.
